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Teatro Massimo di Palermo

Teatro Massimo in Palermo

The Teatro Massimo in Palermo is an opera house and opera company located in the Piazza Verdi in Palermo, Sicily. It is one of the biggest theatre in Italy and one of the largest in Europe (the third after the Opéra National de Paris and Staatsoper in Wien), renowned for its perfect acoustics. The architect was Giovanni Battista Filippo Basile and, after his death in 1891, the theatre was finished by his son, Ernesto. Construction was started on January 12nd 1874 but was stopped for eight years from 1882 till 1890. Finally, on 16 May 1897, the opera house was inaugurated with a performance of Verdi's Falstaff conducted by Leopoldo Mugnone. Basile was inspired by ancient and classical Sicilian architecture and, thus, the exterior was designed in the high neoclassical style with elements of Greek Sicilian temples. Realized in the late-Renaissance style, the auditorium was planned for 3,000 people, but today there are over 1.350 seats, with 5 tiers of boxes and a gallery rising up around an inclined stage, and shaped in the typical horseshoe style.On stage at the Teatro Massimo there were almost all historical XXth century conductors and singers such as Serafin, Giulini, Karajan, Celibidache, Gavazzeni, Prêtre, Muti, Abbado, così come le grandi stelle della lirica: Caruso, Gigli, Di Stefano, Del Monaco, Kraus, Pavarotti, Tebaldi, Callas, Gencer, Freni, Sutherland, Scotto, Kavaibanska. Today there are more than 100 music, opera and dance evenings and the monument is the most visited in the city.